ATC reserves ruling on Mirza’s plea for early decision

Karachi
Anti-Terrorism Court-III reserved its ruling on Saturday after hearing arguments on the question whether former home minister Dr Zulfiqar Mirza could move an application seeking permission for going abroad while his bail plea was to be heard at the next hearing.
The court was to take up his bail plea on June 10, but Mirza moved another application asking it to entertain his request urgently.
Special Public Prosecutor Muhammad Khan Buriro argued that there was no provision in the Criminal Procedure Code to entertain an application filed by an accused whose trial had not yet initiated.
An attorney for Mirza, Shaikh Javed Mir, said his client had moved the application due to the nature of the ailment of his wife whose departure for abroad on June 15 was necessary.
ATC-III Judge Saleem Raza Baloch heard that Mirza feared that in case his bail application was dismissed, he would have no option but to approach the Sindh High Court.
At this, the judge snubbed the defence lawyer, wondering how he could presume that the trial court would turn down the request.
ATC-I Judge Bashir Ahmed Khoso has already accepted Mirza’s request to exempt him from appearance for three weeks in three cases for going abroad for the treatment of his ailing wife.
At the previous hearing, that court did not agree with the special public prosecutor, who asked for the dismissal of Mirza’s request on the grounds that no provision of law empowered the court to grant such permission at a stage when it had not yet heard case. Buriro stated that being aggrieved by the court order, he would challenge its ruling in the Sindh High Court. Another SPP, Mubashir Mirza, also opposed Mirza’s plea. It was underlined that the defendant’s attorney had not bothered to properly file affidavits and a simple application was moved which was not maintainable.
Buriro referred to sections 205, 352 and 540 of the Criminal Procedure Code, saying that no provision of law empowered a court to grant exemption to any accused from appearance while the accused had yet faced investigations. Mirza, along with his associates, has been booked in several cases in Karachi, Badin and Hyderabad.
One of his attorneys, Shaikh Jawaid Mir, had approached a sessions court and sought permission for his client to visit the United States. The sessions court is hearing a case against him pertaining to standing on an armoured personnel carrier of police and delivering a speech allegedly threatening police officers after appearing before an ATC on May 9.
District and Sessions Judge (south) Ahmed Saba had allowed the application and observed that the counsel relied upon the recommendation letter of the Sindh Institute of Urology and Transplantation issued by Dr Adibul Hasan Rizvi. The sessions court has already granted interim bail to Mirza till June 13.